


Can You Tell Me What Is Real?

by Cocopops1995



Series: 300 Followers Special [6]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Bonding, Clones, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Kinda, Lance is a good egg
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-06
Updated: 2018-06-06
Packaged: 2019-05-19 00:58:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,677
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14863647
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cocopops1995/pseuds/Cocopops1995
Summary: It couldn’t be easy for him to learn that everything he thought he knew about himself was a lie - God knows it wasn’t easy for any of them when they found out - especially in such a harsh and unexpected way. so Lance understood why this Shiro decided to hide himself away from everyone else. He needed time to figure out who he was.





	Can You Tell Me What Is Real?

It took Lance a while to track him down, which wasn’t really a surprise - Shiro had always been good at hiding when he needed time to himself. Just because the Shiro he was looking for wasn’t the one they’d all thought he was didn’t change that - he still had all of Shiro’s skills. 

It couldn’t be easy for him to learn that everything he thought he knew about himself was a lie - God knows it wasn’t easy for any of them when they found out - especially in such a harsh and unexpected way. so Lance understood why this Shiro decided to hide himself away from everyone else. He needed time to figure out who he was. 

Lance was also pretty sure he had other reasons for hiding himself away - like blaming himself for everything - which was why Lance had set out to find him in the first place. That and he hadn’t shown up for any meals for the past two days, so Lance was also taking him some food goo. 

When Lance finally did find him in the Black Lion’s hangar, Lance couldn’t quite help the sad smile that slipped onto his face - he should have checked here first. He was, after all, still Shiro. At least that’s what he believed with all his heart - of that Lance was certain.

The smile slipped off Lance’s face when he spotted him curled up against one of the lion’s back paws, with what was left of his right arm hugged into his chest. Lance felt his heart break at the sight. He’d never seen Shiro look so small and vulnerable before. The missing right arm made it even worse.

Clone or no, Shiro should never look like that. 

Lance cleared his throat. “Hey.”

Shiro’s head shot up at the sound. His eyes were red and swollen, and Lance felt his heart break even further.

Shiro spoke before Lance could. 

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be near the Black Lion - I’m not safe, I know, but I didn’t go into the cockpit and I just… I just -”

For a moment Lance was shocked at the sudden flood of apologising, but he quickly held up his hands.

“Hey, shh, no. It’s okay. I’m not here to yell at you or anything. I just noticed that you hadn’t showed up for any meals lately, so I brought you food.” He held up the bowl of food goo and glass of water as proof.

Shiro shrugged. “I wasn’t hungry. Besides, I didn’t think I was welcome.”

Lance frowned at that, but couldn’t blame the guy for thinking that. None of them had reacted well to finding out that the Shiro they had with them was a clone, and that the original Shiro was actually trapped in some kind of astral plane. 

“Mind if I join you?” Lance asked after a moment of awkward silence.

The Shiro in front of him scoffed and looked away. “I don’t see why you’d want to.” he answered darkly. 

Lance sighed and sat down across from him, and set the food goo and water down in front of him. “Look, I know that things are awkward right now, but you’re still a person, and you still deserve to be treated as one.”

Shiro eyed the food with something close to disdain and then looked away again, but the tightness in his face and the way he pushed his lips together belied his hunger. 

Lance sighed again, “Shiro -”

“Don’t call me that!” he snapped, almost snarling, in a dark and dangerous tone.

Lance paused at the outburst, surprised by the vehemence in it, but then spoke again: “Okay. What would you like me to call you, then?”

Not-Shiro’s eyes snapped back to Lance’s face, obviously surprised by the question but his expression turned dark again in seconds. 

“Might as well go with Kuron. It’s what the Galra called me.” he chuckled darkly, “It’s appropriate, after all, since it means ‘clone’ in Japanese.”

Lance felt disgust at the Galra well up in his gut. They’d probably pulled the word right out of Shiro’s memories. That his friend had been violated in such an intimate way, and then had that stolen knowledge used in such an arrogant and insulting way made Lance’s stomach turn.

He took a deep breath and then forced his voice into a flippant tone. “Nope. Wrong answer. Try again.”

He-Who-Thought-He-Was-Shiro looked back at Lance; his face stuck somewhere between confused and annoyed. “What?”

“I’m not going to go around calling you ‘Clone’ in your own language. The Galra might operate that way, but you know very well that none of us here do. So, you don’t want to be called Shiro. Fine, I can agree with that - it’ll be too confusing to have two Shiro’s when we get the original one out of the astral plane anyway - but you need a real name.”

He-Who-Used-To-Be-Shiro scoffed again. “Only real people get real names.”

Lance groaned. “Stop it. You are a real person.”

Shiro-the-Other looked like he wanted to argue but Lance carried on speaking before he could. “You have a personality. You have emotions. You have physical needs. All things that real people have too. But there’s another thing that makes me absolutely sure that you are a real person. Want to know what it is?”

Lance waited for him to meet his eyes and then pointed up at the lion above them. “It’s because Black lets you pilot him, and has been doing so for months now.”

For a moment He-Who-Once-Was-Shiro’s eyes went round, but then he scowled and looked away again. “Only because I practically forced him to.”

Lance groaned again, louder and more frustrated. “Bro. None of this is your fault. You know that, right? Besides - and this is something you know better than any of us, since you have piloted Black - no one can force the lions to do anything. Especially not the Black Lion.”

Soon-To-Have-His-Own-Name looked away, his jaw set stubbornly. But Lance saw his shoulders fall - a subtle sign that he was listening, he just didn’t want to accept what he already knew. 

Lance was running out of ideas to get him to do so before he starved himself to death, though.

“Look, if given the choice, would you do anything to hurt any of us?”

To-Be-Named’s head shot up, eyes wide and earnest. “No! Of course I wouldn’t.”

Lance nodded. “And do you still love us?”

Name-Pending closed his eyes and swallowed heavily before answering in a near-whisper: “Yes. You’re my family.”

Lance felt his heart twinge at the slight tremble in those words, but pushed forward. “And if any one of us were in the same position as you, would you blame us for everything that’s happened?”

The temporarily nameless one’s eyes snapped open. “No, of course not!” 

The moment the words left his mouth, his eyes widened in realization and he let out a quiet little “Oh.”

Lance nodded again. “Yeah, oh. Now, stop beating yourself up over something you couldn’t control. Allura’s cleared you of any remaining druid magic, and Team Punk, as they call themselves, are working on your new, way better, arm. So rather focus on what you can control, namely what you want to call yourself because I am running out of things to call you in my head, and if you don’t pick something soon I’m going to start calling you ‘Dolly.’”

That earned Lance a snort. “You don’t want to call me Kuron, but you don’t have a problem with naming me after a cloned sheep?”

Lance smirked. “If the name fits. Besides, it got you to smile, didn’t it?”

Dolly-For-Now froze, and then smiled, warm and genuine, if small. “You did. Thank you, Lance.”

Lance shrugged. “It’s nothing. Now, would you please eat while you think about your name? You look like you’re about to fall over.”

Not-Dolly’s stomach grumbled as if agreeing with Lance, causing both of them to chuckle as he picked up the bowl and balanced it on his knees and then began to eat.

Lance stayed with him until he had polished off the bowl of goo and downed the glass of water.

“I think I’ve got it.” 

Lance perked at the hesitantly made statement. “Oh?”

“I - Shiro - was supposed to have a twin. He was still-born, but… his name was supposed to be Ryou.”

“Ryou.” Lance let the name roll over his tongue, testing it. “I like it. And thinking of you as Shiro’s twin rather than his clone is better too.”

Ryou sighed. “I don’t know if Shiro will agree.”

Lance shrugged, “If he doesn’t we’ll work on something new, but honestly, I don’t think he’ll mind.”

“I hope you’re right.”

Lance hummed in agreement. “You still hungry?”

“Yeah, actually.”

“Well, let’s go get some more food, then you can tell the others your new name.”

Ryou made to stand but then hesitated. “Is Keith here yet?”

Lance shook his head. “Not yet. It’ll be a few hours still.”

“He’s going to hate me.”

Lance sighed. “He’s not going to be happy, that’s for sure. But we know where Shiro is and we’re working on ways to get him back, so I doubt he’ll actually hate you. He’ll just be angry for a while.” he smirked, “I like to think that flying the Red Lion has given me a better understanding of Mullet Head. Mostly that he’s a total dork.”

Ryou chuckled. “Don’t let him hear you say that.”

“But it’s so fun to get him all riled up!” Lance said, grinning as he got to his feet and offered Ryou a hand up.

Ryou hesitated a moment more before taking Lance’s hand and allowing himself to be pulled up.  
Things were by no means going to be easy going forward, as he told Ryou - they knew where Shiro was and were working on ways to get him back. And who knew - maybe Ryou would end up being the key to getting Shiro back. Whatever happened, Lance was feeling optimistic that things would eventually work out.


End file.
